Metastatic tumors disappeared completely in 3 of 22 patients who had
previously failed radiation therapy and/or chemotherapy for advanced-stage lung
cancer. Another patient had a tumor reduction of more
than 50%, for an overall response rate of 18%. Two patients had a mixed
response, and four had stable disease at a median follow-up of 5 months.

Among eight early-stage lung cancer patients who received the vaccine after
surgery, seven were disease free at a median follow-up of 7 months. The eighth
patient died.

"It was a fairly substantial response rate, which surprised us
all," said Kristen Hege, MD, senior director of clinical research for Cell
Genesys, Inc., Foster City, California. John Nemunaitis, MD, of US Oncology,
Dallas, was lead author of the study, which was presented at a poster session.

GVAX has already met the main objectives of the ongoing trial, Dr. Hege
said. It has been shown to be feasible as an antitumor agent, and, so far, no
dose-limiting toxicities have been observed.

The most common adverse events were flu-like symptoms in some patients and a
vaccine-site reaction observed in 92% of patients. "These were typical
vaccine-site reactionsredness, itching, swellingsimilar to what you see
with an insect bite," she said. "And that’s an encouraging side
effect because it implies we are inducing an immune response at the vaccine
site."

GVAX vaccines are also being evaluated for prostate cancer, myeloma,
pancreatic cancer, and leukemia.